Make sure you check out my day 1 post & day 2 post first!
I actually got a pretty decent amount of sleep before race #2 of the weekend which I was happy about because Sunday was going to be a looooong day! I was up with my alarm at 3AM and immediately started getting into my Provincial Belle costume. I knew I needed to be Belle for the Princess Half because she's the Disney Princess that I relate to the most. I really loved putting my costume together and I think I really came out great! 💙📚
(No, I did not run with the book - it was purely for the photo! 😂)
Had to snap a quick mirror pic before headed out the door to send to Brett with my good morning text!
One of my favorite details of my Belle costume were my socks! My friend Shannon got me these for Christmas and I thought they went along perfectly with my costume. If you can't tell, they are banned book socks with the titles of banned books on one sock and the titles blacked out on the other. I feel like Belle would be a huge fan of these socks! Here's a close up:
We were a little worried about what getting to Epcot would be like when we didn't have our own transportation. Luckily I had scheduled an Uber the night before to pick us up at 3:45 and we were able to catch a ride no problem. I will say that Ubers are in high demand at that time because you have literally thousands of people trying to get to the park at the same time. Our driver's phone kept going off with ride requests during the 15 minute ride to Epcot. I would recommend if you are planning to do an Uber or Lyft to get to the park on race morning, make sure you're scheduling it in advance because even though there's drivers out and about, everyone is trying to book a ride!
Similar to the 10K we got to Epcot around 4am. There were significantly more people at this race (22,800!) so it was a bit more of a process of getting to the staging area. Cassie and I also both had bags to drop since we were planning to head right to Magic Kingdom after the race, so we had a few more stops to make before we could really enjoy the morning. After we dropped our gear and got ourselves situated, we tried our luck again at a pre-race character photo. We opted to wait in line for Queen Minnie since she had the shortest line. We waited in line for about 40 minutes or so and got to the point where there was maybe two more groups ahead of us before they brought Queen Minnie in! 😫 So heartbreaking! Again, if you're hoping to guarantee yourself a character photo, make sure you're getting the the staging area much earlier than we did. Either way, we got cute pics of our costumes with the character backdrop before headed to the corral!
Because the race field is so much larger, the corrals need to be placed on a larger stretch of highway on the park property to accommodate all of the runners. That means we did have to walk a bit away from the staging area. A lot of folks say it's a mile walk but I don't think it felt more than half a mile. Either way it really wasn't that bad of a walk, so I wouldn't stress too much about this portion of the half!
Again I was placed in the last corral so I had a bit of a wait ahead of me. The way the corrals were placed (A-F were on a straightaway section of the highway while G & H were on the opposite side), they were able to get almost all of A-F out in about 15-20 minutes. However because G & H had to cross over and kind of zig-zag their way to the starting line, it took another 40-50 minutes for me (I was close to the front of H) to get up to the start. Luckily I don't mind waiting too much, but seeing how quicky A-F got out on the course definitely motivated me to remember to submit my proof of time for my next Disney race. 😂 Standing around is tough on the feet! But before long I was finally running one of my bucket list races - the Disney Princess Half Marathon! ✨
As expected, being in the last corral there was a lot of walkers and slower runners that I had to dodge around, but there were plenty of stretches where I felt like I could run at a regular pace. I did keep the pace quite easy (I think I stayed in the 11min range for the entire race where I could help it) because I just wanted to take in the race and enjoy myself. This is a race I've wanted to run for the better part of a decade so I wanted to enjoy it! Around mile 2.5 you get to the Magic Kingdom toll plaza. Even though you have a couple more miles to go to actually get to Main Street, it's an exciting milestone of the course!
Even though there's quite a bit of highway between the start and getting to Main Street, there was so much entertainment along the way. There were a couple of character stops, 3 or 4 marching bands and drumming groups, and the video screens playing Cinderella (who the race was themed after)! My only big complaint for the race was that there was a huuuuuge hold up at the Ticket & Transportation Center before you get to Main Street around mile 4. I guess there's a bunch of construction going on right outside the TTC and the course narrows to 1 lane, so as us back-of-the-pack-ers got to that point the bottle neck was so bad that the group came to a dead stop as we waited our turn to get through. I'm honestly not sure if there was much they could do to alleviate that, but it was my singular dislike about this course so I think that's pretty good!
Right before mile 5 you finally make your way through the gates of Magic Kingdom, turn the corner, and see Cinderella's Castle come into view! It's just as magical as you imagine it to be. I believe I cheered as I finally saw the castle because it was what I had been waiting for after all this time! I had to stop and walk my way up Main Street to really make sure I took it all in.
Magic Kingdom was a lot of fun because there were so many opportunities for interaction! There were so many photographers around the park, especially around the castle, characters at almost every turn, and spectators cheering you on everywhere. Even though you're only in the park for .8 miles of the course, there's really so much to enjoy. According to my Garmin this was my longest mile of the race at 18:07, so you can tell I really enjoyed myself! I also felt confident that I put in enough distance between myself and the back of the pack that I was no longer at risk of getting swept, so I stopped for my very first character photo...
DOPEY!!! 💚💎💜 I have dreams of completing the Dopey Challenge one day so I knew I had to stop and grab a photo with him for good luck on my future attempt at 48.6. After experiencing Princess Weekend I have a feeling it'll be sooner rather than later! 😉
There were plenty of photo opportunities around the castle. They have several lines of photographers right in front of the castle, as well as a couple of other angles so you definitely won't miss your opportunity for a good castle photo! I had to stop for at least one more for good measure. 🏰
You exit Magic Kingdom at mile 6 and enter into a loooong stretch of road which is commonly known as the most difficult part of the race, simply because in comparison to running through Magic Kingdom it is quite boring! They did a great job of keeping the fun going on the course during this, though. I think I counted a total of 6 or 7 character photo stops, a few video screens, a DJ, and a marching band, so there's still plenty to look at and interact with! I think my least favorite part of this section of the course in the fact that the turns on this stretch are banked which are really difficult to run on. These kinds of roads really bother my ankles so I tried my hardest to stay at the highest part of the road so I wasn't running *completely* sideways. This only happens a couple times, though, and the rest of the road is fairly flat!
Around mile 11 I hopped in line for another character photo before heading into Epcot - Suzy & Perla! They were so cute and I was excited to get a photo with characters from the movie the half was themed after. After that photo it was time to finally make my way back into Epcot and get ready for the finish! You actually don't run that much in Epcot which I was surprised about. We ran so much in Epcot during the 10K that I figured it would be similar during the half, but you only run maybe a mile backstage and quarter mile inside the park. They had Panchito out in Mexico and there were maybe two people in line for photos, so I made sure to stop for him as well!
Shortly after Mexico was the mile 13 marker and the finish line! They had a couple of characters out at the finish which I was so excited about! They had Donald dressed up in his knight gear as well as *gasp* QUEEN MINNIE! I was so pumped to get a photo with both of them, especially Queen Minnie who I had narrowly missed getting a photo with that same morning. I didn't care that I was literally 10 feet from the finish, I had to stop and get a couple more photos before finishing the race!
After I snagged my photos I floated across the finish line, so happy that I had finally gotten the opportunity to run this bucket list race. I don't generally pay money for race photos but I knew I had to buy myself this finish line snap. I look exactly how I felt coming across that finish line - SO happy! ✨
(I think I might be the happiest person in this entire photo haha)
I came across the finish line and snagged my finisher's medal, which was probably my favorite medal of the weekend. A kind stranger took my finish photo and I took hers (one huge plus of the Disney races that I experienced - everyone is willing to take a photo for you!), I was sprinkled with pixie dust, and I made my way over to the finisher's area.
Almost directly after I took the above photo my legs started cramping up HARD. It was super painful to walk which was concerning, but I waddled my way over to the finisher's area to collect my Fairy Tale Challenge medal. I was shocked at how large the medals from the weekend were. They were all SO gorgeous and I could not stop touching and looking at them. 😂
After collecting my challenge medal I finally linked back up with Cassie and we also met up with her family who was joining us for a day in Magic Kingdom! Before exiting the finish area we stopped to grab an Ever After Ale which was a beer brewed especially for Princess Weekend - a blueberry lemonade beer with GLITTER! 😱✨ It was actually so yummy and a great treat after a long morning. We sipped on our beers as we made our way to the monorail for Magic Kingdom.
We got to the Ticket & Transport Center and unfortunately at this point I started feeling pretty awful. I was hopeful that the way I felt would pass and I could push through the day. We got through the gates of Magic Kingdom around noon and I just started feeling worse and worse. I was getting a migraine, I was overheating, I hadn't really eaten all that much, my legs were cramping, and I had just been on my feet since 4am. We were able to squeeze in one attraction - the Monster's Inc. Laugh Factory - before I kind of threw in the towel. I knew I was going to make the rest of the group miserable because I was feeling miserable, so I opted to head back to our room to see if I could rest for a few hours and feel better. Cassie's brother reassured me that I could definitely leave the park and come back no problem, which basically decided it for me. I may had tried to push through if that wasn't the case, but knowing that I was allowed to come back made heading back an obvious choice.
I was really, really bummed at this point because I had been looking forward to this portion of the trip so much and I was frustrated that I felt so terrible. (My stupid migraines have ruined many a fun moment for me.) I left the park feeling pretty badly for myself, not knowing if I was going to be able to feel good enough to come back. I wanted to take some medal photos before I left, though, so I made sure to snap this pic before leaving:
They're all so beautiful! 😍
I got back to the room around 2pm, showered, stuffed my face with food delivered by Uber Eats, and rested my legs for a couple hours. Honestly this was 100% the right move because by 4:30pm I was ready to call another Uber back to the park and I was in Magic Kingdom again by 5:15. Lesson learned - I am not someone who can hit a park right after a race! I'll keep that in mind when I return for Dopey in a few years. 😉
Luckily by the time I linked up with the group again I didn't really miss too much action! My fast pass for Haunted Mansion was still active so I got to hop on that ride while the group enjoyed Dole Whips. We made our way back in front of the Castle as the sun was setting for some gorgeous medal photos that Cassie's brother took. I was shocked at how amazing the photos came out - it didn't look like I was in pain at all! 😂 Kyle is such a great photographer so shout out to him for taking our photos!
We ended the night by riding Pirates of the Caribbean, then I jumped on my fast pass for Space Mountain which was one of my favorite rides when I was 8 and is still one of my favorite rides at age 29! It was around 9pm by the time we were done wandering the park and I was so happy that I was able to feel well enough to come back and hang with everybody!
All in all, Princess Half Weekend was all I dreamed it could be and more. I definitely want to come back for more runDisney races in the future. The entire weekend was put on so well and I feel so lucky to have gotten to experience it first hand after dreaming about it for years. I totally recommend taking part if you have the chance!
Of course, I vlogged all weekend long and you can check that video out here:
I also did a runDisney tips video. I didn't take your ~typical~ approach to participating in a runDisney event so I thought I'd share my experience to let folks know that you can still have a blast without doing what you're *supposed* to do when it comes to these events!
